Droids Live
by Balin Lord of Moria
Summary: R2-D2 elaborates on how he knows that droids like him, his pals in the Republic, and C-3PO, are truly self-aware, sentient souls. A droid is an entity, not a machine.


Philosophers and ethicists had argued for many generations on the issue of whether droids were alive or not. Some claimed that droids were self-aware and capable of feeling emotions and pain, and even believed in some sort of higher being, and/or an afterlife. Others argued that a droid's mental and emotional states were merely pre-programmed simulacra of true feelings.

A certain astromech droid, however, could testify to the truth, if he could; that droids like himself were truly life-forms. Sure, they were artificial life-forms, but they were as self-aware as any organic sentient or non-sentient.

He knew this because he had interacted with so many of his own kind over the years, and they demonstrated the same emotions, joys, and pains that he did. A droid was the most extraordinary thing made from the hands of man, he believed.

And his name was R2-D2, or Artoo.

Artoo had encountered droids of all kinds all his life who shared the life-like traits he himself possessed, and even after all these years of living with only a handful of droids while he was Luke Skywalker's property, he could remember all his old friends from his days with the Old Republic.

He remembered R2-KT, his old "girlfriend" who served the 501st Legion, and with whom he used to gossip about tales with the 501st and his former master, Anakin Skywalker. They were pals, for sure.

He remembered Katie's rival for Artoo's affections, QT-KT, Jedi Aayla Secura's mech droid. She was one heck of a spunky droid, not to mention chipper and cute. Why else would she be called Qutee for short?

Actually, Qutee was the closest thing Artoo ever had to a real girlfriend; Katie was more of a chum than a date. Artoo remembered how that silly little pit/pilot droid, WAC-47, was always trying to move in on their relationship, because Wack was infatuated with Qutee, too.

In fact, that was another sign that droids were alive; no droid would act quite like Wack if they were just passionless robots.

Wack was quite the comic relief in D-Squad, the droid squad sent on an important Republic mission in the second half of the Clone Wars. A little annoying, to be sure, but Wack was still a good pal, full of enthusiasm and clumsiness. He almost reminded Artoo of Jar Jar Binks.

He remembered U9-C4, or Ceefor, one of the best of all the clunky R5 model astromechs in the galaxy. Evidently, his master, Thongla Jur knew how to take good care of him so he would run better than most other unfortunate R5 units. Ceefor was a little on the timid side, and often forgot to do important things, like lock down his position when shooting his laser cutter. Not as impressive as Qutee, with her skill with her remote-controlled magnet, but Artoo still liked him, because he was a good friend, too, and as self-aware as any droid could be.

He remembered M5-BZ, or Beezee, and the loss of his memory banks before D-Squad's first mission. Even without his old memories, Beezee was able to retain his personality and his friendships with the rest of the droids. He reluctantly served as a command center for Colonel Gascon, but got to be a hero (and a martyr) when he saved them all from a massive number of buzz droids onboard a Jedi Cruiser. Artoo and the rest of his squad promised that they would always remember Beezee as a true hero.

Artoo knew many other droids as well. He thought Flo, the WA-7 waitress droid in Dex's Diner, was kind of cute with her own highly sociable personality. A cooking droid onboard a transport to Naboo with Anakin and Padmé had an annoying attitude. Sure, Artoo was snitching a plate of food, but his masters needed something to eat, and that cooking droid couldn't deal with it. "Hey, you! No droids! Get out of here!" the chef droid had said. Excuse me? _You're_ a droid!

He remembered the battle droids he used to enjoy tussling with at any good opportunity. They were too conspicuously dim-witted to be nothing more than killing machines. Besides, he once led a squad of three reprogrammed battle droids to the Citadel prison, and they had been as loyal to him as he was to Anakin and Luke. And he had heard about a protocol droid called I-5YQ, or I-Five, from Ahsoka Tano's former pal, Barriss Offee, an extraordinary droid who knew how to hide contraband, cheat at Sabacc, and act as a kindred soul for such forgotten luminaries as Barriss, Lorn Pavan, Den Dhur, and Lorn's son, Jedi Jax Pavan, among other things. He heard a rumor that I-Five was as self-aware as it was possible for a droid to be.

Most of all, though, there was the matter of his best, and longest-lived, droid companion and friend ever, C-3PO, or Threepio. Artoo never could understand how Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and even Leia Organa Solo, could continue to think of him as sub-human and a pain in the neck, especially after Leia's mother, Padmé, always treated Threepio like an equal, and loved him. At least Luke saw Threepio as the living thing that he was. Threepio was the funniest friend Artoo ever had, more so than even that silly WAC-47. What's more, he and Threepio bickered a lot, but no matter how bad it got, they always made up. Now how can things with no souls act quite that way all the time?

Of course, so many people still refused to think of droids as alive, or even equals. The fact was, so many people reviled droids as if they were a lethal and contagious plague that could annihilate all life as the galaxy knew it. The Empire, in particular, treated its droids like trash, or like pure-and-simple machines with constant memory wipes and zero personality.

Artoo never did find out exactly what happened to some of his droid pals from the Republic after it became the Empire. However, he _had_ heard rumors.

Apparently, Katie was reprogrammed by Darth Vader and her mind was wiped of everything she once enjoyed under the Republic, and she served the 501st until some Rebel shredded her with his blaster, or his lightsaber, he wasn't sure which.

Qutee had witnessed Secura's murder at the hands of the 327th Star Corps, and attempted to take out Commander Bly, Lieutenant Galle, and their men to stop them from getting Barriss and the teenaged Padawans. She failed to stop them from vaporizing poor Barriss, but with the help of her magnet and some clone trooper weaponry, she managed to hold off that scoundrel Galle and his clones long enough for the Padawans to flee Felucia, though Galle himself blasted her to death in the process.

It was hard to say what happened to Ceefor, but rumor had it that he lost his temper when the treacherous clones executed Master Jur in cold blood, and fired his laser cutter at them. He bravely scurried all over the place, taking out nearly the whole platoon that was present where he was, until the clone captain present threw a thermal detonator at his shell and blew him up. If that rumor was true, Artoo was impressed that Ceefor didn't go down fearfully.

Beezee had already died during their mission with Colonel Gascon; Artoo knew that for certain.

Wack was deemed useless by the Empire, and under a lot of indignant protest from him, he was melted down in a furnace on Coruscant. Artoo hoped he went out with a bang, and not a whimper. It was the least Wack could do after all his silliness in D-Squad.

Flo went underground with her own master, Dexter Jettster. Artoo had no idea how long she survived on Coruscant, but he suspected she was dead by now.

He had absolutely no idea what I-Five's fate was, or those of Jax Pavan and Den Dhur, his friends and companions.

Now, all he had left was his best droid friend, See-Threepio. But he had learned a long time ago that it was better to mourn for an appropriate amount of time for lost friends, and then move on and hope that they've gone someplace better. In that, he was eternally grateful to his counterpart, because Threepio had drilled into Artoo's head often enough about how there was a Maker who cared about droids and would ease their passing into the afterlife.

Artoo, like Threepio, was something of a quasi-universalist himself, hoping that all self-aware droids, even those stupid battle droids of the CIS, went there eventually.

Of course, none of this would make the organic hostility toward metal men go away in a hurry, he knew that. People would continue to ridicule and revile his kind to the end of time, most likely. And people never listened to droids like him and Threepio anyway, when they tried to tell people that they had life just like them. Most people couldn't understand Artoo's speech, and most people found Threepio too annoying to be worth listening to.

Artoo wished that there was no such thing as prejudice. Its existence meant that there would always be people who would find one of the out-of-the-ordinary people too disgusting to deserve to exist. But he wouldn't let it get to him too much.

Because in the end, the sentience and afterlife of a droid only had meaning for the droids who had it, and droids had no use for the un-living, which, to them, meant all organics that wouldn't accept that droids deserved fair treatment as much as they did.


End file.
